Wellness peptide craze: Why people are injecting drugs 'not for human consumption'

Katie carefully takes a syringe out of its packet. She pricks the top of a small jar of blue liquid and pulls the plunger up.

She turns and jabs the needle into her bum cheek and gives the camera a big thumbs up, looking pleased.

Katie's been injecting GHK-Cu, a copper peptide, for several weeks now and she's confident it's making a difference to her skin. So much so, she says, the stretch marks she developed after having her two children have almost disappeared.

The only disconcerting thing?

It clearly says "for research purposes only" on the label wrapped around the jar. This peptide is not suitable for human consumption.

Like the growing number of others on social media who film themselves injecting unregulated peptides, Katie is seemingly unfazed by the warning. She believes it's safe.

Peptides are short chains of amino acids, or small proteins, which our bodies naturally produce. They act as messengers, telling our cells what to do, and play vital roles in our skin health, immune system and helping to control our hormones.

"I've done a lot of research into them, and I am exercising caution," says Katie.

"I started super small," she continues. "Just to make sure I didn't notice anything weird."

Katie says it's also made her hair thicker and improved her skin texture.

While GHK-Cu, a peptide that our bodies make, is used topically in skin cream in an attempt to reduce fine lines, it is not considered safe to inject due the lack of scientific research and the risks of triggering a potentially dangerous immune response.

Peptides have been used to treat medical conditions for more than a century. Insulin, the first peptide to be discovered, helps people with Type 1 diabetes and some with Type 2 manage their blood sugar levels.

But now unregulated peptides have exploded onto the wellbeing market since GLP-1s, weight loss drugs, became mainstream.

GLP-1s are medications that mimic the glucagon-like peptide 1 hormone, a hormone we naturally make in our bodies which helps regulate hunger levels.

While GLP-1s have undergone extensive human trials and are licensed by the MHRA, the UK's medicines watchdog, there is a "grey market" of other peptides emerging.

Grey-market peptides exist in a legal and regulatory middle zone. They are not illegal to buy or own, but they are not approved for human use, so are not subject to the quality controls that govern pharmaceutical manufacturing.

"We're seeing a perfect storm," GP Dr Mike Mrozinski explains. "The success of regulated GLP-1 drugs has 'normalised' using a needle, lowering the psychological barrier to self-injection.

"And people look at the transformative results of pharmaceutical-grade peptides and wrongly assume that all peptides are inherently safe."

Social media is awash with adverts and videos of influencers injecting themselves with various concoctions of peptides that are sold for research purposes only.

Want to boost muscle mass and speed up recovery? There are claims BPC 157 does just that.

BPC 157 is a synthetic peptide derived from human gastric proteins. Early animal studies suggest possible roles in wound healing and gut protection.

Need to reduce your body's inflammation and improve its metabolic health? Some say TB 500 is worth a shot.

"The people using these products are, in essence, becoming lab rats," Adam Taylor, professor of anatomy at Lancaster University, explains. "There is some data out there, but in pre-clinical models. Essentially they've been tested on animals, but not on humans."

He has been watching this market grow for more than a year and has spoken to people who have had side effects such as dizziness, diarrhoea, rashes and leg swelling. He's worried that, in the long term, people are potentially risking their lives.

Bacterial endotoxins, he says, can do a "serious number on you". In small doses, they can cause fever, tiredness and aches, but in large amounts, they can trigger life-threatening conditions like septic shock.

Jack Sarginson decided to "stack peptides" to help him recover from a back injury he sustained in the gym.

The 24-year-old started injecting a peptide cocktail called Wolverine, in December last year, which purports to have "super-hero" regenerative powers like the Marvel character its named after.

Within two weeks, Jack says he noticed a "significant recovery" with "literally no side effects". By week five, he says, he was "virtually pain-free" and able to do things he had not been able to do for "quite some time".

Before trying peptides, he says he had been to his GP and was given physiotherapy sessions, but despite consistently doing the exercises he was told to do, it wasn't getting any better.

It got to the point, he says, that it was hindering his day-to-day life and he started to feel "really down".

"I know there are two sides to this," he says, "And to some, injecting drugs might seem quite extreme, but I think, since Covid, people are people are finding ways to take control of their own health.

"I feel peptides can be beneficial if used responsibly."

Mystery chronic conditions

At this stage, using unregulated peptides isn't "bio-hacking", it's a biological gamble, Dr Mrozinski warns. "If this 'guinea pig' culture spreads, we risk a public health crisis of 'mystery' chronic conditions caused by these unregulated peptides that the traditional medical system isn't yet equipped to reverse."

At the same time as millions of posts about peptides pop up across socials, a growing number of clinics are offering peptide therapy.

Dr Syed Omar Babar, an A&E consultant and the director of a private clinic in Leicester, offers peptide therapy - using unregulated peptides like BPC-157 and TB-500, among others. He believes this is a "golden era" for peptides and that they will play a huge part in the future of healthcare.

But why, I ask, are there no gold-standard trials on humans? If these peptides are so safe and effective, why aren't they licensed medicines?

He says it's down to funding - to get a product from animal studies to human trials and to a fully licensed medicine takes years and billions of dollars. It's not in the interests of big pharmaceuticals, he explains, to fund this process.

"Many of the peptides we are talking about are completely natural - our bodies make them - therefore, making them difficult to patent.

"They have to be markedly different to their natural form - which is tricky with peptides."

Without a patent, he says, companies risk pouring money into a product with little financial protection.

Dr Babar says the peptide therapies his clinic offers are overseen by a GMC-registered doctor but, because these products are not licensed and there is "no textbook" on how to use them, it comes down to experience and clinicians like himself learning "from each other".

As a doctor, he says he can't suggest these unregulated peptides are able to treat a certain condition. However, he says he can highlight to patients which products are available and, with their full consent and understanding that these peptides are not for human consumption, he is able to recommend peptide therapy.

In response to the explosion of the unregulated peptides market, the MHRA, the body responsible for licensing and overseeing the use of medicines in the UK, says that it does not "accept attempts to evade medicines regulation" by selling peptides for "research purposes" where evidence indicates they are being used by people.

It says it will remove products from the market if they claim to treat or change how the body works if they are not licensed under the Human Medicines Regulations Act 2012, and that it strongly advises against purchasing and using unauthorised medicinal products - "particularly those promoted on social media".